Ex-Employees Of The Rich Are Sharing The Most Effed-Up Things They Saw And Heard, And It's A Solid Argument That We Should Tax The Rich WAY More
Hannah Marder
Mon, February 2, 2026 at 12:31 PM UTC
22 min read
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A while back, we asked employees of the rich and powerful in the BuzzFeed Community to share the worst behavior, requests, and complaints they witnessed from their rich bosses. Here are some of the most messed up.
We also used replies from these Reddit threads.
1. "Long ago, I was a server in a Country Club. I was very new to properly opening wine bottles. I was using my key to take off the foil and gashed the webbing on my hand badly. There was a husband and wife at the table. I put down the bottle and was about to leave when he said, 'Who told you to stop pouring?!' I picked it up and poured the wine, dribbling blood all over the white tablecloth."
"I then went outside, had a smoke, and thought about my life."
2. "A friend of mine was a personal assistant to a woman who got a new dog every year. She'd get rid of last year's dog because she didn't like them once they grew up. Like WTF??"
3. "I worked for a company where the employees were paid and treated like shit, while the executive staff were paid like kings. They never paid for the vacations they took. Meals, equipment, guns, and pretty much anything else you could think of were paid for by the company. Each year, they would go on a company hunting trip to Africa. Every once in a while, they'd take a random trip to another country between their African trips. They'd fly first class and stay in 5-star hunting lodges costing several thousand dollars per night per person. The hunting tags they bought were for animals like elephants, lions, cheetahs, etc. These tags can cost upwards of $80,000 EACH. The worst part about all of this is that the animals were baited in and shot from a vehicle. No actual hunting involved."
4. "I worked for someone who owns sports teams. He had his helicopter land on a youth sports field while he ran in for meetings, and a bunch of kids' games had to be canceled because of it."
5. "He paid off the family suing his son for sexual assault and misconduct against their daughter. The owner's son was 23, and the girl was allegedly 16. I don't know the exact amount, but it had to be a couple of million to make them drop it. Rumor around the office was that this wasn't the first incident, and that the owner was bailing his son out of a likely prison sentence for years."
—Anonymous
6. "My multi-millionaire boss wanted me to give birth on-site with a doctor and a nurse, and then have the nurse take care of the baby until my shift was over. He said 'epidural and all' and offered me $10k to do it. I was his *receptionist*."
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7. "I interned at a production company. The CEO made me go get a new Blackberry for him. It took four hours to go downtown because it HAD to be bought in downtown LA for whatever reason. When I brought it back, he opened the plastic, turned it on, and asked, 'What the fuck is this? Why aren't my numbers on it?' 'Well, it's brand new, you haven't updated it yet...' 'This is useless, what the fuck have you been doing for four hours?!?!' 'Well, I was...' SMASH. And he threw it on the ground. Literally. Just smashed it. 'Fucking useless.' I was flabbergasted."
8. "When the COVID vaccine first came out in December 2020 and was initially meant for only nursing home patients and frontline staff, the army reserve team and the Department of Health came to administer the first doses at the nursing home I worked at. The owner brought all his yacht club friends and flew in his family from out of state to get the vaccine. They stood at the front of the line before old, sick people and nurses to get the shot. I was disgusted."
—Anonymous
9. "I used to be the assistant of a celebrity photographer in NYC. Mostly hip hop celebrities and New York nightlife. This guy fucked so many women behind his wife's back, it was obscene. If we worked until 3 a.m., which was common, I would have to crash at his place, or else I would have to sit in Penn Station for hours until the first NJ Transit train. He made me sleep on the floor, even though he had a couch; I had to sleep on the floor."
10. "My old millionaire boss picked a penny up off the workshop floor, handed it to me, and said, 'There's your wages,' then walked away laughing to himself like the mustache-twirling villain he was."
11. "Do you know how in Succession the Roy family has their staff give away money after negative interactions with the public? Well, that 100% happened ALL THE TIME with my boss. This guy once stabbed a slow walker from behind with his umbrella. I gave $300 as an apology."
"The final breaking point of me quitting was when an elderly woman in a wheelchair got on the elevator in our building. ... She was having trouble remembering what floor she needed to get off on, so my boss pushed me over and hit two and when the door quickly opened (we all got on the elevator on the first floor) he pushed her out extremely roughly and said, 'Figure it out before you get back on, you old ratty hag!' She got $4,000 and agreed not to press charges since I made up a fake story on the spot about how my boss's best friend died and he wasn't in his right mind."
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—Anonymous
12. "I worked for a mortgage company in Arizona, and my boss, [redacted], would offer us lunch but then would make us pay for it. Then we overheard him and his wife telling the assistant to include everyone's lunch in their expense report so they would get reimbursed for the full thing."
"[He] never offered us a fully paid lunch, but then wanted to steal from the company and us. He also would do super-illegal stuff in the mortgage world, like let unlicensed people quote borrowers' rates and do applications. I caught on to his other slimy ways and tried reporting him to HR, and they didn’t do anything, so I just quit."
—Anonymous
13. "I worked for...a private country club for skiing in Vail, Colorado. We got a radio call that one of our members was being brought down by ski patrol in a toboggan, and to get ready to receive the injured woman. She got out of the toboggan, the ski valets grabbed her gear, and I assisted her to the clubhouse with her arm over my shoulder…until we were out of view of ski patrol, and she said to me, 'Oh, I'm fine. I was just tired and didn't want to ski down.' Then proceeded to ask me what wines we currently have in the bar."
—Anonymous
14. "I work with (or for) this really old guy who is in his eighties. He tells me stories all the time from his past of all the wild shit he's done there before coming to America and making his fortune here. The country he is from is known for corruption. He was the son of an influential and rich politician. In his teenage years, he did whatever he wanted. He said girls used to flock to him no matter what because he had money like that. There was this one girl who didn't give him any chances, and he really wanted her. So he threw her into the car, took her to the middle of the forest, then coerced her into having sex — aka rape. The girl's dad found out, and he complained to the police. Instead of taking my CEO to jail, they made up a phony charge against the dad and threw him in jail. The dad was forced to drop the charges for his freedom. The police, the judge, and any person with influence were in this guy's pocket."
"That's one of the most fucked-up things I've ever heard, and he told the story almost as if he was proud of it."
15. "I worked at a newspaper where we hadn't gotten a raise for eight years. The owner, a notorious poor-mouther, was obscenely rich — he owned 31 papers that he had inherited. He flew into our town on his private jet. He proceeded to tell us, yet again, that there would be no raises because profits were down, and that health insurance premiums would nearly double, along with hikes in deductibles. Mind you, I was making $11.50 an hour as a reporter/photographer. He then sent us back to work and had a brunch catered for the 'big shots' in town."
"Oh, and the company charged each reporter a $5 fee to use OUR personal car insurance for accident coverage while we were on company time. I left shortly after and never looked back. What a freaking jerk of an owner."
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16. "A potential client talking about their work in an equatorial country: 'We're just about at the point where we can start charging the locals for water, which is very exciting.' I declined the job."
17. "I worked for a business brokerage owner (think realtors, but for businesses). When he was ready to semi-retire, he cooked the books to make the firm look MUCH more profitable than it was. It worked, and the new partner/owner was VERY confused when the business wasn't doing well."
"The worst part was that the new owner left a super-cushy job for this business, and eventually he and his wife had to go back to work full-time to supplement their income since the business didn't perform as they'd been led to believe. Shortly after that, I quit because of the shadiness, and my boss (the original owner) legitimately offered to buy me whatever brand-new car I wanted to stay since I knew all his dirty secrets. I refused."
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—Anonymous
18. "I was in charge of the video production team. For one project, I was doing a video with the CEO of the company. The board had just decided to bring on a private equity firm for an infusion of cash in anticipation of taking the company public. The CEO and the other partners got a HUGE bonus when the equity firm came on. We're talking millions of dollars. The purpose of this video with the CEO was to tell the staff that everyone was going to need to 'tighten their belts' and understand that things were going to be lean for a while. Benefits were going to be cut. The sick leave and time off policies were going to change, etc. During a break in shooting, the member of the CEO's staff that was coordinating the shoot asked the CEO, 'How's your Bentley treating you?'"
"The CEO went on a rant about how his Bentley was in the shop again, he hated the car, and he had so many problems with it, and it was always having little issues. When he finally finished his rant, the guy asked the CEO, 'So what did you drive to work today?' The CEO answered, 'Oh, my other Bentley.' He was doing a video about the rank and file staff needing to tighten their belts; meanwhile, he had half a million dollars in cars."
—Anonymous
19. "The wife of a high-net-worth man who was the CEO of a company in the USA said at dinner one time, '(insert husband's name), why do you invite the help to have dinner with us? Then they will think they are on our level.' I am currently their house manager and was like, 'Hello! I am sitting at the same table you are sitting; I can hear you.'"
20. "At an old job, I had a breakdown because I had not been paid in six weeks. I literally was unable to eat and was walking to work because I could not afford gas. My boss found me crying and told me I was being 'petty' for wanting my money and asked me, 'Why don’t you just live off of your savings?' I was a 21-year-old recent college grad who wasn’t getting my paychecks — what savings???"
21. "We all had to take a 25% pay cut at the start of the pandemic so the company could stay in business. For perspective, that 25% was how much my rent is. After a couple of months, my boss phoned the office to tell us about the $80,000 jet he chartered so he didn’t have to fly back to Canada from Mexico on a commercial flight. The company paid for the jet."
"Needless to say, I quit soon after."
—Anonymous
22. "At a company I worked for briefly, the boss decided to cut pay for all the managers. I was not affected, but it was seriously suspicious that two months later, all the bigwigs went on a company retreat and were gifted hundreds of dollars' worth of shit, like really expensive bourbon, leather chairs, golf clubs, and bags, etc."
23. "I was a personal assistant/housekeeper for a well-off family in NYC. They had a condo in Ft Lauderdale, and we went down to fix it up to sell and buy them a house instead. It took three months to find a house. They harassed the real estate agent nonstop the whole time. (I mean, literally calling her at 3 a.m. to yell about a house she didn't like) Then asked her to cut her fees down to half of what they were normally. It made me sick."
24. "My ex-boss is a French 'count' even though we don't have aristocracy anymore. He literally has his Uber Eats delivered to 'the Count __.' He's constantly on holiday, refuses to do any work, yet posts photo after photo of himself pretending to be at the office, and steals 5,000 euros a month from the company to pay for the luxury apartment that he writes off as an office. But he couldn't afford to pay me more than minimum wage?"
25. "I worked for the owners (three brothers) of a private bank and managed their properties. One had first edition uncut classic books purely for decoration. He also had a Rolls, which required new tires due to sitting unused for months at a time — the steel belts flattened from the weight of the car. One wife called me all but accusing someone (me?) of eating an $8 pizza at their country club, which, after numerous far more than $8 international calls, turned out to be her son in town having lunch. This from someone with a running balance over $10m on any given day."
26. "I worked for a guy who was old money. He was a waste of space. He couldn't load a stapler. But he'd throw temper tantrums. I remember setting him up with a three-day itinerary. Just this gorgeous setup, multiple-page folder, every event by the hour. He left it in the rental car to the airport. So I had to anticipate 12 calls over the next three days to tell him where to go. He couldn't figure out email on the road. There were a few times he had to hand me over to a hotel clerk or registrar for an event because he couldn't follow my instructions. He was flipping out on me the whole time. He wanted me to overnight him another itinerary for $120 or so on the last day. I explained the situation and the price. The last day was just dropping off the car, then taking the flight. I sent him the itinerary. He then complained about me mailing it to him."
27. "I spent years working for multi-billionaires in their private homes. One bribed a group of university researchers so that they would reschedule their research trip on an icebreaker ship in the Svalbard archipelago because the principal wanted the ship for those dates, so he could take photos of polar bears and whales. After three days, Mr. and Mrs. both got 'bored' with Norway and returned home early."
28. "My boss cut all our hours in half in order to gain the COVID supplemental payments, then bragged that he didn't make a loss. (You were supposed to be making a loss to be eligible for the supplemental payment. We are an essential service.) We all lost half our wages a week for him to do this. I, as a manager, still had to do my full job in fewer hours. When he brought it up very casually because he's so out of touch with us — who need our wages to survive — I very flatly let him know I was literally losing my hair due to the financial stress. 'Really!?' 'Yes. I work hard to ensure I have a job, but this was completely out of my control. There's nothing I can do. I can't get a second job in this climate. It was very stressful.'"
29. "She was the former president of the board at a cosmetics brand I work for. She would guilt-trip us for not donating money to her church (that her husband and father-in-law ran). I make 42,000 a year. I barely have enough for rent and car payments. Yet she is worth millions. I suspected, and was subsequently right, that her family used the church to funnel money and/or use as tax breaks (various charities and scholarships)."
—Anonymous
30. "I worked for the CEO of a major bank. This person (K) also sits on the board of multiple other companies and charities. They were constantly travelling for work and basically never home. They had an 8-year-old kid who was cared for almost exclusively by a nanny who barely spoke English and spent most of the day on the phone, fully ignoring the kid. The kid had terrible grammar and could barely read. She was very juvenile for her age. I don't know for sure if she had an intellectual disability, but I think she was just really neglected. She would sit by herself for hours watching TV shows meant for toddlers."
"I was at the house one day and watched the little girl shriek with delight and go running full tilt towards her parent with her arms outstretched for a hug as K stepped through the front door. They’d been away all week, travelling for work. As the little girl went in for a hug, K said, 'I have to go. My driver is waiting.' And then closed the door in the kid’s face, and left for another week.
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It seemed obvious to me that this person is an absolute workaholic who should not have become a parent. I later learned that there was a teenager, too, who was in some preppy boarding school and only came home on the weekends. It was really sad."
31. "I was a nanny for four years. Once, I got sick with strep and couldn't work for a few days. The mom called me several times to ask what her kids liked in their lunches."
32. "'No, you can't have a raise, because I just bought a new house and the pool is expensive to maintain.' The pool was bigger than my apartment. It was at that point I knew I had to leave."
33. "I worked for the wealthy guy who owned the company - I was his personal assistant and did a whole variety of things. He decided to go on an 'unplugged' vacation, a fishing trip where they took you out by helicopter and came back in six weeks to get you. He was shocked to discover, when he came back, that the office was empty and we'd all started looking for other jobs because WE HADN'T GOTTEN PAID."
34. "They paid for their own dumpster and weekly pickup because they ordered so much stuff online, and their trash cans supplied by the city couldn't fit everything. It was a family of three, and the dumpster was always full."
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35. "I worked at a private airfield. The ones where we would valet the cars for the rich passengers. One time when an older lady flew back in and we brought up her new Range Rover, she freaked out and said it wasn’t her car and that she couldn’t believe we lost her car. I went back to review the security tape and see what car she drove up to the plane, and try to trace it that way. The passenger was yelling at the front desk that she couldn't believe how inept we were, and that she was thinking about suing us if we couldn’t find her car. Cue her assistant calling to see how the flight was. The passenger was telling her assistant how we lost her car when the assistant reminded her she bought that Range Rover just before she left for her trip."
"The passenger then immediately remembered and haphazardly apologized as she walked out the door to the new car. Imagine being so rich that you forgot you bought a brand-new car."
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36. "I was a corporate relocation coordinator and had some top-tier, give-them-whatever-they-want clients, and the short answer is I'm glad that I never, ever have to deal with the soulless, demanding pigs again. One man sued his housekeeper for eating food that was in the refrigerator. After she got food poisoning from the food."
37. "Our CEO was worried about catching COVID in April 2020, but wanted to go to a 'seminar' out of state without traveling with 'the sick people'... So what does he ask our accounting team to do? Price out how much it would be to rent or buy a private jet so he could travel solo. Yes, COMPANY money so he could go on a mini-vacation disguised as a work-related expense."
—Anonymous
38. "They used the private company jet to go visit their house in another state dozens of times, but charged employees to use that same jet when they were forced to evacuate during a hurricane."
—Anonymous
39. "I worked for a pharmaceutical company. A customer called to complain that UPS wouldn’t deliver her OTC beauty cream. The reason? The area was evacuated due to the California wildfires! She literally said she could see a neighbor's house on fire. She wanted us to contact UPS and the police to coordinate the product being delivered."
40. "Teenage kids taking the Gulfstream jet to Africa to shoot an elephant over spring break. Flying their jet three hrs each way (~$50,000 total) for a dental appointment. Same day. Dropping off one 20-something person in the morning in Aspen, who then says, 'Oh, I forgot my dress, go back to Dallas and pick it up for me.' About $30k just to retrieve a dress, same day. Spending a weekend in Vegas, where they talk about spending $250k on poker over the weekend. ie Losing $250k. At the same time, reducing employees’ (servants, not 'real people,' mind you) health insurance coverage while increasing premiums. The stories could go on endlessly."
41. "I have several things I witnessed with my own eyes. Rich boss throws a huge Xmas party at his mansion. Pays Ludacris and Snooky to attend. We were all smoking and drinking outside on the second-floor balcony. He suddenly gets up and proceeds to piss off the balcony onto his guests. Knocked up several female employees and paid them off to 'disappear.' There were five that I knew of for sure, probably more. He got sued for 300 million dollars and proceeded to destroy his own defense when called to testify. Smug prick, really."
Finally, we'll end on a few that were really the boss's kids, but still.
42. "A friend worked for a family where the son pissed that his Range Rover was the wrong colour. He drove it into the pool in protest. He got another."
43. "I work for an insurance company, and we have an extremely wealthy family on our books. The youngest daughter is 16, and she got a brand new, fully-loaded, decked-out G-Wagon for her birthday. While out of town, she rear-ended someone in a drive-thru. Rather than ask the girl she'd just hit if she was okay, she got out and flipped out over the custom Mercedes logo on the front of the car that had gotten damaged."
—Anonymous
What's the worst behavior or comment you witnessed/heard from a rich boss, client, or customer? Let us know in the comments or via this anonymous form.
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